winter

Had a pretty busy winter, some decent waves, some fun bike riding and a couple of really good trips out to the alps.

Turned out to be an epic winter for snow with many saying it was the best for over twenty years. Personally I lucked into a few days of freshies. It's also the first time i've had a proper powder board with me, One of the Lib x Lost Jamie Lynn colab boards. It's loosely based on the concept of a fish surfboard being short (146) and wide giving the same surface area as a much longer board with a fully 2-3 inch stance set back. It's also the first time i've ridden a camber board for a few years.

The board was amazing. Actually pretty fun on piste holding a good carving edge despite its width. In soft snow I couldn't wipe the grin off. It's genuinely the closest ive come to surfing on frozen water. Effortless float with no need to lean back so no back leg burn and just so much flow with huge rooster tails on each turn. Even my wife commented on how much fun it looked and she is usually the first to burst my bubble of self-congratulation!

Most definitely recommended!

Fourth Gear

Sometimes the simplest things are the most fun...............

I don't often remember that i've got a mat stashed in the van but every time I surf it, I wonder why I don't use it more often!

a ghostly presence

Low light, bulb shutter and a shaky hand. I kinda like it though! GS keel fish at P-Land, early winter 16. Over the next year i'm going to be helping the boys at Gulfstream with their online content. Really looking forward to getting my teeth into some writing again.

coffee eh?

Cool little coffee van tucked away in a bank holiday Cornish campsite

hello buoys

I think this might be one of my favorite photos i've taken in the last few years. Early morning les dunes on a flat summers morning. cross processed Fuji velvia through a Diana f+

a craftsmans hands

via Instagram The man, the myth, the legend......... Jools Matthews of @gulfstreamsurfboards who are probably making the nicest surfboards in the uk at the moment! diana and crossprocessed #film pic that's a couple years old now

#filmisnotdead #filmphotography #ishootfilm #toycamera #shaper #nofilter #handmade #craftsmen #lomography #portrait #120 #dianafplus #surfboard #shaper #madeinbritain

Pre-surf stokage

via Instagram

BGA and @if6was9surfboards pre-surf stoke at the gate. About 20 mins in @if6was9surfboards found a coverup from somewhere to hoots from the peanut gallery. #impressed. Lomo LCa x Fuji film

 #film #nofilter #outsideisfree #outside #ishootfilm #filmisnotdead #analog #lomography #lca #surf #surfcheck #surfer #logging #35mm #35mmfilmphotography #sprockets #coldwatersurf #chasingwaves

January 05, 2017 at 11:02AM

via Instagram Flat again today so here's a holga picture of a French fisherman post dawn patrol at #lasauzaie I always find it interesting how you rarely see anyone surfing the kind of boards I enjoy along this stretch of coast. It's mostly white thrusters, progressive longboards and SUP's. The surf shops are the same. It's like "sprout" never happened. :-) My Slimpig and the superchunk drew a fair bit of interest in the water. #film #ishootfilm #lomography #sprockets #35mm #holga #analog #analogphotography #surfcheck #fish #twinnie #vendee #surfer #nofilter #outsideisfree

January 02, 2017 at 04:33PM

via Instagram Pretty splendid dog walking weather. #sunset #nofilter #doodle #dogsofinstagram #labradoodle #beach #coastal #coastalliving #outsideisfree

December 30, 2016 at 04:40PM

via Instagram There's a slumbering winter point break round the corner #nofilter #outsideisfree #sunset #chasingwaves

December 27, 2016 at 07:36PM

via Instagram Hanging out at the ancestral home in the midlands today. This shot has to be a decade old. A tiny Saturday morning at Saunton riding a @joeltudorsurfboards Nuuhiwa that I eventually sold to @finshack 9'6 of moving sidewalk. #nofilter #surf #longboard #dropknee #outsideisfree #singlefin #log #nuuhiwa #devon

Safe flying tonight Santa!

via Instagram Safe flying tonight Santa! God Jul to all 🌲#nofilter #sunset #outsideisfree #beautifulsky #merrychristmas

Well groomed French beachie

via Instagram Well groomed French beachie #summer #outsideisfree #lesdunes #35mm #35mmfilmphotography #sprockets #film #nofilter #ishootfilm #holga #lomography #beachlife #corduroy

warmer

The season of cold hands is approaching........

le petit quiver

Nicely light leaked Diana film shot of my travelling quiver for our summer trip to france. Pretty much all conditions covered by these choices and they all got wet several times.

L-R 9'4 GS slimpig, 7'0 Greco surf performance soft top, 5'6 GS keel fish, 4th Gear flyer surf mat

I hadn't ridden the mat for a long time but I had so much fun in the high tide shore break on it, it ended up being one of the trip highlights. The soft top is fun too. It's really my daughters board but it surfs really well considering.

longview

With the new parking arrangements at saunton, i've ended up surfing P-land a bunch over the summer. Its a maligned wave in many respects, oft overlooked unless the wind is wrong elsewhere. In truth it can be a lot of fun on a log or a fishy shortie, especially if you catch the right banks.

the retreat

see-land

So i've been working on a new log with Jools at Gulfstream ready for summer. More details to come soon - it's going to sit as a model in their range as a nice counterpoint to the saunton foil.

The place in the picture has had a big hand in it's template and  the direction my prefered longboard shapes have taken over the last few years, coupled with the worldwide move by loggings stylemakers away from the paralell templated Nuuhiwa style logs and towards those more informed by Pigs, Nat's magic sam, Greenough's 4a template and the Australian involvement movement.

a place to play

One from California, one is visiting in a couple of months....................

Tumbling.....

Tickets for the second ever Somersault festival at Castle Hill in North Devon are well and truly out. It's a cracking line up this year and should be a whole heap of fun if last year is anything to go by. It really feels like they have built on last years success and this year they have, amongst others, Laura Marling, Passenger, Bombay Bicycle lub and Crystal Fighters as well as legends Jimmy Cliff and Norman Jay.

It should be good!

In the meantime, feast your eyars on Laura Marling's first album. It's a really beautiful record. Top pop fact is that her band at this time contained some of Mumford and Sons before they "made it"